Reposted from the A2000 owner's thread, seemed to have gotten buried in there after a few days. I should mention have searched the archives to no avail.

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I've got five blinking lights of death with my KDS 60A2000, purchased in late December 2006. Build date is October 2006. It has worked fine up until today, no advance notice at all, one evening it worked fine and the next day it wouldn't work at all.

The problem is that the TV will not power. No picture, no sound. The Power LED on the front blinks 5 times continuously, pauses for several seconds and repeats. I have removed/inspected/reseated the lamp unit, powered off the unit for 24 hours, plugged it back in and still have the same issue. I know from searching the archives what three blinks and four blinks mean, but cannot find any information on five.

Anyone know what this is? I am looking at at least several weeks for a technician to come out and perform a diagnostic on the set. I guess they are pretty backed up.

This is my second Sony HDTV and up until now I have been extremely satisfied.

I haven't seen anyone mention 5 blinks, so that's a new one. Someone with a service manual will have to look that up.

Being told "several weeks" for service is unacceptable. I don't know if that's from Sony or a third party, but I think you need to yell at them a little. Start by asking them to look up what 5 blinks means, then start going up the management chain until someone helps you in a reasonable amount of time.

Lamp Driver/Ballast is correct based on the service manual link that was posted in the main thread several days ago. This has also been confirmed by the repair facility contracted by Sony to perform in-home service.

My case has been expedited and repair is imminent. The repair facility notes that they have obtained the two items needed for this particular fix.

I'll post details after the repair is executed and I am back up and running.

"Platinum certified" service techs have replaced the lamp driver/ballast. They took about 30 minutes from start to finish. TV works fine now.

My only complaints are:

1. They were in a hurry. This did not seem like something that you want to be in a rush to do although the replacement looked pretty simple and straightforward. They left one of the screws off on the rear casing. I found it on the floor after they left and put it back....not a big deal.

2. They forgot to reset the diagnostic settings per the service manual. This needs to be done to clear the problem from the TV's memory, much like you would clear a setting from a car that is OBD enabled after fixing the issue. I was able to do this myself after finding the instructions in the service manual.

Overall I am happy to have my set back, but this only reinforces my belief that if you want something done right you have to DIY.

Guys,
I just read this post and now I am worried. Last night our Sony KF-50WE620 has a sudden pop sound, then the image / sound went dead. We pressed the stadby button. The LED started flashing (5 times, pause, 5 times, etc). After a minute it went solid. When I tried to turn it back on the LED flashed like normal (3 times I think), then the lamp led started flashing. I assumed it was the lamp, so I have ordered a replacement. Is this actually the ballast / driver? The manual for our TV did not mention 5 flashes (anywhere I could find).

Descension, can you update us on your case? My kds-60a2000 has the same problem you reported (4-blink fan error). I'm still waiting for a Sony service tech to bring a new fan assembly (over a week after demanding a repair). Is that the part they brought you? If not, what exactly did they bring you? I can vouch for HTMAN21's procedure above. His procedure (including variations) worked for me three separate times now. The first time it worked immediately after opening and closing the door alone one time. The second time I needed about 20 door openings/closings. The third time I needed many more than 20 and inserting and reinserting the light several times, yet it did get the fan going ultimately. I contacted Sony after every problem here, but it took a while for them to admit there was a hardware problem and over a week now (and counting) to get a new fan assembly to my house. Anyway, I'm afraid this problem with SXRDs is not as rare as it should be. Sadly, for me the trouble begin just after my 30-day money back guarantee expired. The picture on my kds-60a2000 is beautiful when the fan works though.

My local Sony service tech showed up this morning and provided what seemed to me to be a very convincing fix for my kds-60a2000.

First, he told me that he'd already personally done service calls to this fix particular type of problem 3 times prior to my service call. So this problem is quite wide spread. Second, he told me that Sony shipped about 5000 kds-60a2000 with this faulty fan. He said the problem is a connection problem in the fan (molding attached too tightly as a fan production problem or something) which could be sometimes fixed with vibrations in the set, thus the opening/closing door tricks which will sometimes fix this problem temporarily. The fan looked a lot like the fans in the back of a PC by the power supply. This is not the Nider (from Vietnam) fan visible in the back of kds-60a2000, but rather a bigger fan closer to the rear projection light. This fan has "Sony" printed on the fan itself and there was a Sony part number there, but the guy took the part with him (to return to Sony he said) and I didn't get the part number.

My premium service tech then replaced this fan with an improved part (not the same part number as before, but still a Sony-built part). He told that this part was never used in the regular production of the kds-60a2000, but WAS used the corresponding Bravia series (since 2 years) after Sony discovered this fan related problem.

I must say I'm still a little worried because I've now read posts of some people that got a fan replacement (hopefully not this improved fan) for a kds-60a2000 and faced the same exact problem 6 weeks later (again the 4-blink sequence). Again, they asked Sony to replace the fan, but I didn't find any follow-up for this case.

One other problem for me is that it took my Sony premium service 2 weeks to get the part from Sony and ultimately make this fix. I can't tell for sure, but it seemed like most of this delay was caused by a delay from Sony in shipping this replacement part.

Anyway, my kds-60a2000 is playing beautifully now, but this problem does indicate that a large number of SXRDs were shipped with faulty fan parts, and I'm sure there will be plenty of other owners who will struggle with this problem. On the good side, the service tech said that this fan has not gone into the Bravia models since two years now, so most Bravia SXRD owners are safe from trouble here.

This part runs $22.31 according to a web search I did, in case your set is already off the one-year manufacturer warranty on your kds-60a2000 when your fan goes (and like me, you didn't spring for the extended warranty).

resurrecting an old thread.. I just woke up this morning to flashing 4 lights. At first I reset my power protector since sometimes we get a bump in the middle of the Night and my A2000 doesn't like those (All my other electronics would be ok though). Anyhow that did not improve so I opened the bulb door and plugged in the TV and it powered it up just fine. Is this going to be a problem that I can expect from here on out? I do have an extended Warranty on the TV, so at least I am covered for another 2 years that way. I was going to be ticked that I was going to miss the Super Bowl because of this. It just couldn't wait until Monday.

Re-resurrecting this old thread. My 60" 2000 didn't give me blinking lights of death, but rather when I powered it up after not using it for a week, the lamp fan didn't come on (I didn't hear it). I looked in back, and the fan was "quivering", but not spinning. Repowered it up/down 3x, no joy. I reached in through the louvers with a screwdriver and gave it a spin, and it spun up and has been ok for a week now.